B A Mohideen’s demise: Condolences pour in from political leaders

Kasaragod, Mar 28: A pregnant Bihari migrant woman in labour gave birth in an ambulance after the Karnataka police allegedly refused to allow the ambulance carrying her to cross the border road to Mangaluru to reach her hospital.

The border road was shut due to the lockdown. The woman used to consult a doctor in Mangaluru across the border.

As Karnataka police stopped the vehicle at the border in Talapady, saying no vehicle, including ambulances from Kerala, could be permitted to their state, the drivers decided to take the woman was taken to the general hospital here, but she went into labour and delivered a baby girl in the vehicle

Both the mother and baby are doing fine, authorities said.

Hailing from Patna in Bihar, 25-year-old Gowri Devi and her husband were working in a local plywood factory in this north Kerala district, from where the maximum number of coronavirus cases have been reported so far in the state.

Those living in the border towns and villages of Kasaragod are dependent on the hospitals in Mangaluru as it is nearer, local people said.

The ambulance drivers- Aslam and Musthafa- said they stopped the vehicle by the wayside, making it safe for the woman. The baby girl and the mother were soon shifted to the government general hospital here and both of them are safe and healthy, they said.

Local people complained that not only pregnant women, but even patients requiring daily dialysis and emergency cardiac and cancer treatment were being sent back by Karnataka.

Bengaluru, Feb 26: The Karnataka Pre-University Board issued a five-page booklet on Coronavirus ahead of the forthcoming examination to spread awareness among the students, the Board said on Wednesday.

In a statement, the Board said that the booklet contains details on symptoms of the disease, measures to be taken in case of an outbreak and other information. The Board has directed the Directors in all districts to disseminate the information to students through college principals.

The PUC examination begins from March 4 and continues till March 23.

Bengaluru, Apr 15: The Karnataka government on Wednesday opened a critical care support unit to monitor the progress of Coronavirus patients in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) of various designated COVID hospitals across the State.

Karnataka is the first state in the country to establish a dedicated unit for critical care support, by linking ICUs of COVID hospitals onto a single platform, Medical Education Minister Sudhakar K, who inaugurated it, was quoted as saying in a statement on Wednesday.

Its objective is to monitor COVID-19 patients in ICUs across Karnataka state so that the hospitals are prepared for the potential onslaught of the virus and thereby to achieve zero COVID mortality in Karnataka, he said, adding, it would enable capturing details of ICU COVID-19 patients in real-time